Still Showing Up: The Kerry Sanders Memorial Fund Keeps People Moving

By Brian Tress

In her daily work at the Outer Banks Family YMCA, Kerry Sanders didn’t need recognition to lead. Her presence did that on its own — drawing people in, making them feel capable, and reminding them they belonged.

“She could make a best friend in only five minutes,” her husband Bob Sanders said. “If it weren’t for Kerry, I wouldn’t be working out — people still come up to me and say that.”

That ability to draw people in — to make them feel seen, capable, and welcome — now lives on through the Kerry Sanders Memorial Fund, established with the Outer Banks Community Foundation. The fund was born out of grief, gratitude, and motion, reflecting the way Kerry lived, taught, and loved her community.

Kerry Oaksmith Sanders died on July 16, 2025, after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 66. Her death prompted an outpouring across the Outer Banks, from weeks of messages, online tributes, and packed services and memorials, to a walk in the woods that helped turn loss into something lasting. 

Kerry and Bob met on the Outer Banks in 1985, when they were both living there full time — Kerry working in graphic arts and Bob in restaurants — and were married in 1989 at St. Andrew’s by-the-Sea in Nags Head. They spent a brief period in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, where Kerry worked as a set director and designer, including work on the David Lynch television masterpiece Twin Peaks. In 1991, they returned to the Outer Banks — with a six-week-old baby in tow — after Bob was offered a partnership in the iconic restaurant Tortuga’s Lie. They would raise two children, Devin and Bryce, both of whom now work at Tortuga’s Lie. 

“She loved it here,” Bob said. “The barrier islands, the nature — especially when you cross that bridge down to Hatteras Island. This place just gets inside you.”

Kerry’s path into fitness began before the YMCA opened. When their children were young, she started taking step-aerobics classes at another local gym, drawn initially by the availability of child care. “That’s where she got the bug,” Bob said. 

Within a few years, she was teaching. When plans for the Outer Banks Family YMCA were underway, Kerry was hired as group fitness coordinator, six months before the Nags Head building opened in 2001. 

“She was super excited,” Bob said. “Teaching and helping people was her passion.”

Over the years, Kerry earned certifications in yoga, Pilates, Pilates reformer, cycling, and kickboxing, often teaching six or more classes a week. She was known not only for her stamina and strength, but for the care she put into every class. 

Jamie Koch, Executive Director of the Outer Banks Family YMCA, worked closely with Kerry for years, remembering her as thoughtful, fun, and full of energy. 

“She was welcoming and encouraging to everyone,” Koch said. “She helped members believe they could try something new and built a community of instructors from the ground up — some of whom have been here for 25 years because of the culture she helped create.”

That commitment to people became especially clear during the COVID shutdown. When indoor classes were suspended, Kerry refused to let it stop her. 

“She would get to the Y at five in the morning,” said Jenny Ash, a longtime friend, fellow instructor, and training partner. “She pulled the spin bikes out into the parking lot in the dark so people could keep moving.” 

Ash met Kerry in 2011 when she moved to the Outer Banks and began teaching at the YMCA, where Kerry was already the fitness coordinator. “She knew everyone’s story,” Ash said. “Their injuries, their goals, what they were working through. She was committed — not just to fitness, but to people.”

The two trained together for years, traveling for triathlons and half-Ironman races and fitting workouts into road trips and early mornings. “I called her the bionic woman — when things got hard, she kept showing up,” Ash said. As Kerry’s health declined, she had hope the whole time. “You couldn’t always tell how sick she was. She managed to stay strong.”

After Kerry’s death, many in the community wanted to honor her in a way that reflected how she lived. The Woods Walk, held in October 2025, offered two options — a one-mile walk or a 5K through Nags Head Woods — allowing people to participate at whatever pace felt right. About 100 people took part, raising over $5,000 to formally establish the Kerry Sanders Memorial Fund through the Community Foundation. 

The donor-advised fund will support the Outer Banks Family YMCA, with a focus on strengthening the fitness department Kerry helped build. It supports studio improvements, equipment, and helping instructors afford continuing education and professional certifications. 

“We were lucky enough to be able to afford traveling for certifications,” Bob said. “A lot of instructors can’t.”

Chris Sawin, President & CEO of the Community Foundation, said the fund reflects the kind of legacy the foundation exists to steward, ensuring that community-driven generosity continues to support the places and people that mattered most to Kerry.

Ash sees the fund as a direct extension of Kerry’s values. “She believed in paying it forward,” she said. “Movement, presence, gratitude — that’s what she lived. You couldn’t really blow anything off around Kerry. She would ask you, ‘If not now, then when?’” 

Ash hopes the Nags Head Woods Walk becomes an annual event. “Several friends and Kerry would go on hikes in those woods — it was a chance to catch up socially,” she said. “If we keep the walk going, she’ll stay on people’s calendars. It keeps her present.”

On March 1, the YMCA dedicated its Mind/Body Fitness Studio in Kerry’s name, creating a daily reminder of her influence. 

“It matters that it’s something people experience,” Bob said. “But more than anything, I feel her presence there will continue to inspire people to say, ‘I can keep working out. I can keep pushing through this. She would want me to.’”

For a woman who believed in being fully where you are, Kerry Sanders’ legacy continues where she lived it — in motion, in community, and in the lives of people who keep showing up.

About the Outer Banks Community Foundation: The Outer Banks Community Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to fostering philanthropy and supporting local causes. Through its charitable funds and grant programs, the Foundation strives to enrich the quality of life for residents of the Outer Banks.